Opinion: Where Putin will be stopped?

Vytautas Dumbliauskas

Friday, September 12, 2014

Copy link

Opinion: Where Putin will be stopped?

Link copied

How far will the aggressive regime of Vladimir Putin go? I put this question in June to my former colleague who is ambassador of one of the foreign countries. The answer was simple and precise – Putin will go as far as the Western States will allow it.

Two months have passed since that conversation, and they have showed that Putin goes on and on. Aren’t you in despair when you see that the leaders of the European Union and its largest members fail to take at least adequate measures against the aggressor, who even openly mocks at them? Are we dealing with a historical irony?

After all, the European Union has been designed specifically to prevent the European continent from wars. However, the current leaders of the union still cannot believe that one European country attacked its neighbor and they are even afraid to call things by their right names, that is, they are afraid to use the word “war”.

The Russian propaganda machine, which drills into the heads of Russian citizens that the main enemy of Russia is the United States, indirectly confirms the helplessness of the leaders of the European states. From this we can surmise that the Kremlin’s fellows do not consider Europe a serious opponent, because they expect to divide the countries of the old continent, and also to rule them.

If the democratic Western world is still unable to set a limit on the aggression of Putin's regime, try to reflect on how far this aggression will go. The open introduction of Russian troops in Ukraine is a new turning point, for some of our analysts say that Russians will not use their army instead they will secretly provide terrorists with weaponry.

What is next? According to one version which has already appeared in the media, Putin does not intend to occupy the entire Ukraine. He introduced troops only because he wants to prevent the Ukrainian army from shattering terrorists in Donbass, for then the Kremlin would lose the significant measures of impact on Kiev. According to this version, by the introduction of the military, Putin wanted to show to Mr. Poroshenko that he will not win in Donbass, and to force the president of Ukraine to sit at the negotiating table together with the separatists. After such "negotiations" the areas of Donetsk and Lugansk would remain frozen conflict zones, and that is what Russia needs. In other words, Russia needs Donbass not as a territory but as a tool to control the Ukrainian government.

Another version, according to which Russian aggression in Ukraine has to be seen in a broader context of Russian world and the consolidation of the Russian civilization, would be closer to the truth. According to Putin and his ideologues, the Russian nation is divided over various countries, thus the task of Russia is to unite this nation. It is important to emphasize that the Russian nation for Putin is not only ethnic Russians but also all the Russian-speaking, as well as the so-called compatriots (sootechestviniki) - all the people and their descendants who lived in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union.

This widely understood Russian nation now lives in Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, the Baltic States and Moldova, so the aggression against Ukraine should be seen as the first step in uniting the Russian nation. Ukraine must be completely controlled by Russia, and if she is does not obey she must be destroyed as a state. Then comes Belarus, Kazakhstan and our turn to be united.

However, the Kremlin’s ramblings do not end. Putin's former economic adviser Andrew Illarionov argues that Putin's ultimate goal is the war against the Anglo-Saxon world, which includes the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and part of Scandinavia. Russia will seek that the continental European countries, led by Germany in this war would be neutral.

Economically and technologically weak Russia’s intentions to fight against Anglo-Saxon world, sounds like fantasies of sick people, but these diseased fantasies have become a real policy, and innocent people are being killed in Ukraine regarding this policy.

At the NATO summit in Wales, President Dalia Grybauskaitė in an interview with CNN television said that today leaders of Europe and NATO take a test of leadership, which Putin gave them. In my opinion, these leaders are taking the test organized by Putin very poorly. But it is not a big deal for them, for they will not need to perish in a war caused by Russia. They will pass the war conveniently in underground bunkers.